Extermination Squads
by QQQ p
Summary: I finnaly started something new. This is just a try out for an idea I have of writing about the Outworld extermination squad that existed in MK3. Tell me what you think


Through the dark halls of the fortress a black robed figure walked slowly through the isles of pillars. It was very cold and a mist hung across the floor like an old marriage veil cast aside. The mist rose no higher than that of the knees but the cold was bitter all the same. There were others in that great hall. Robed priests and servants and soldiers of importance who had been "invited to bare witness" but they were all distant and in the shadows. It was hard to pick one out of the darkness or to see any faces. They seemed uninterested in conversing with each other. They wandered aimlessly through the darkness like the dead returned to the living.  
They had all seen what the emperor Shao Kahn had wanted to show them. They had all seen the great event that he had spoken of and met it with mixed voices and mixed purpose. It was perhaps the greatest moment of division in thought since the emperor's rise to power so long ago. The black robed figure stopped awhile and gazed up at a pillar. Through the blackness she could only faintly trace her finger over the crest of a phoenix. It seemed strange as she looked around the walls and great black pillars that reached up into the endless ceiling of the tower, to imagine what it had once been. Kitana had talked about it on late nights when she had not wanted to go to sleep and had little but her bodyguard to gossip to.  
"Long ago, the Grand Hall was a magnificent place. There were great dances and processions where the Emperor and Empress would dance themselves amongst the dancers. The pillars were white then, not the dark night couler they are now. On each pillar beautiful paintings had been crafted so that each one was different. There were thousands of pillars in that hall holding up the very tower itself, and each one was individual and fantastic! Then Shao Kahn came, and he changed everything. Through his treachery and great black magic that was unmatched he destroyed my father and took this realm for himself and his hellish armies. But that aside, if only you had seen it! If only you had been there Jade to bare witness!"  
"I am here," whispered Jade her hand taking in the texture of the stone, "But I do not bare witness to what you saw Kitana"  
Suddenly there was a hiss from the shadows and Jade turned suddenly to see a cloaked woman come forward gazing intently on her.  
"You talk of Kitana... where is she right now?" hissed the woman. Her name was Mileena twin "sister" of the princess Kitana. There was a tale that Jade had heard long ago about a woman who had eaten two different flowers and gotten the best of a boy and a girl in one man as a son, but as a consequence she also bore a hellish twin for not ceding the old wise woman's advice not to eat both. Perhaps Mileena was something like this for she was nothing like her sister. Although her face and skin and body were all pure like her sister, almost identical in fact, her teeth were horribly disfigured. They came down her mouth as sharp fangs ready to bite and make a kill and speak soft words of poison. It seemed hard to imagine how she could speak at all with those huge teeth in the way.  
"How should I know?" sniffed Jade, "I have been down here all day the same as everyone else"  
Mileena hissed glaring at Jade for a few moments before she spoke again, "Because, you are her best friend... And I am not. I need to speak to her urgently"  
"Her military training can wait Mileena," snapped Jade, "Her mother has just been resurrected through the black arts to serve the man who killed her as husband, slave and key to the portals of the earth realm. Do you not think she would like a little peace and quiet to herself?"  
Mileena laughed softly but the noise seemed to run up Jade's spine and she suddenly felt slightly afraid of the woman.  
"I know very well that she would like to get away... and she may have done so,"  
"What do you mean?" asked Jade looking quickly in either direction to make sure nobody was around and listening.  
"A bit embarrassing, isn't it Jade? You her personal body guard manages to lose her... as perhaps you might have already guessed she has run away"  
"I might have supposed she would. You cannot blame this on me. I was not allowed to be beside her at the resurrection. How do you know for certain she is gone?"  
"Shao Kahn knows all!" smiled Mileena with wide eyes as if she were summing up a sermon, "Also... I have a connection with her although I despise the idea. I can feel her emotions and right now her feelings tell me she is on the run"  
"You told him?" accused Jade  
"Maybe... maybe not"  
"You hag"  
Mileena laughed again a bitter loud laugh that whistled through her teeth, "We'll have to kill her of course... she's broken her pledge to our master and it can only mean one thing... her death. Kahn said I'd be good for the job, but of course I couldn't bring my self to kill my own sister, that would be a terrible thing. I've asked him to have you do it instead since you like her more"  
"And what did he say to your stupid request?"  
"He said he'd think about it... and he'll decide in the grand conference"  
"When and where is that you slag?"  
"Now your toadines as you prefer to speak in insult. Did your mother not ever wash your mouth out before she died?"  
"She'd have washed yours if she had a pickaxe," retorted Jade and walked away with a great hiss rising up behind her, "I can guess where it will be and if I'm wrong I can blame it on you"  
"Go ahead Jade, you lost Kitana and I lose you. Perhaps I can finally cleanse myself of both you and my pathetic sister. But don't be fooled into thinking you can betray the emperor at any point, because I'm watching you Jade. Right now I'll be watching you more than my sister"  
"Do what you like as long as I don't have to watch your ugly face in return"  
"How dare you speak to me like that, a princess and heir to the throne!"  
"Go crawl to daddy Kahn little girl, I am not your playmate sister or maid"  
They parted their silence blackening into the soft mumbles of the other robed figures. Mileena stood there a while fangs parted she growled and hissed like an animal before storming off in the opposite direction into the darkness and through the mist. A robed figure watched her pass but did not dare to ask what had possessed her.  
  
There it was again, that dark flicker of movement. Reptile chased at it up the steps he hurried with a snarl up onto the landing of the higher parts of the fortress. He was above everything, even the great pit. These parts of the emperor's tower were seldom used: as it was rumored evil spirits lurked here. Reptile didn't know what he was following, but what he did know is that he had chased it out of the great pit and up the stares.  
He came at a crossing point. Stone floored corridors were in either direction with many doors on every turn. Turning he took the left and ran down it his footsteps sounding out like a chisel. Candles were fixed to the walls that had not burned in a very long time. Cobwebs were attached to them and many of the handles of the doors. His clothes were green and black similar to the design of the ninja clans of China, most notoriously of these the Lin Kuei. However Reptile was not what he appeared to be. Something unusual was under that mask of his, the nose some had commented looked rather rubbery and the eyes did not always focus properly on their target.  
He stopped momentarily on a metal grate in the stone where he looked down into the room where the conference was soon to be held. Soldiers and servants of Kahn talked quietly below to each other. It was warm and well lighted. Presumably there were many grates up here, all perfect for gazing down into the various rooms. It made him shiver, what was this thing he was following? Turning he came to a dead end. He tried the metal door that blocked his way forward but it was locked. Growling he rushed back down the passageway and looked down the way he had come.  
Somewhere distantly a door slammed. He growled and ran forward back past the grate where murmurs of talking came from below. He took the left again where he had heard the noise come from. Rushing enraged onwards he slammed open the door and passed into another corridor. He was quiet. More doors going on. His heart leaped and a quiver of fear went through him. He looked back at the door behind him that he had closed. His breathing sounded out softly to his own ears and made him for some odd reason fearful. This corridor was darker than the others and seemed somehow much more cramped. The doors and walls seemed to twist away into the distance as if they had been constructed with little care.  
He turned to head back and put a hand on the doorknob, "Must be the wind" he lied to himself. There was a noise. He let the door handle raise up again. He could not lie to himself now. He had heard the noise of feet against stone. The sound came again and he heard the person running away down the corridor.  
"Stop in the name of the emperor!" roared Reptile and charged away down the corridor. The doors each had dark signs on, skulls and shields with goat's horns and narrow gazing eyed slits that seemed to glare more as he progressed. The passageway weaved and turned and he crossed many crossways always following the sound of the footsteps on the stone.  
"Surrender now and I won't have to kill you!" he called again a lie.  
Silence, he came to a crossroad. Ahead of him there was nothing but darkness. Left, there was a distant balcony where black ragged curtains wailed in the wind. He could see the distant mountains of Outworld on the horizon.  
"What the devil..." he whispered. Slowly he turned his head to the right. The door at the end slammed.  
"Damn you!" he hissed and again charged after it his footsteps echoing out down the corridors. The door came closer, a large metallic one with a skeletal head formed in the center. The eyes were well curved into the metal and it glared at Reptile as if it were alive. He paused a second before gripping the handle he pushed it down. There was a moments resistance before it went down and there was a click from the complicated handle. Pushing hard he opened the door and closed it behind him, his heart beating fast.  
Chains... chains everywhere. Water dripped down from above where the black skies of Outworld came down from an opening with a little white light. It lit the room in a silvery glow coming from Outworld's solitary moon. With each drop of water Reptile advanced parting the chains with his hands.  
"Where are you beast?" he hissed, "I know you're here"  
There was no answer, "Come out!" he bellowed again but he voice was a quiver this time. The chains made noise as they dangled. He could see no end to the long lines of them stretching out into the distance. It was cold and his breath came out in cold white puffs. The chains cleared and he came to an opening where he was directly in the light. Chains were all around him like a Labyrinth and above the water dripped slowly down onto the metal grilled floor like the ticking of time.  
"Where are you?" he whispered turning with a shudder. He turned in a full circle but could see nothing. He felt deadly afraid. This thing wanted to make a stand here... it would not run any further. He did not know where it was, but it knew for sure where he was. It could ambush him at any moment. His heart raced. He was in danger.  
He started suddenly as a swarm of bats flew across the gap above flickering small black shadows down on him. As quickly as they had come they were gone. Reptile was left listening to the drops of water and the noise of the dangling chains as they met with each other in gentle tinkles. Reptile shuddered a flicker passing down his spine and making him catch for breath.  
"Where are you?" he whimpered gazing around him. He suddenly regretted coming here and wanted nothing but to leave. Looking back through the darkness and spied the door. He walked towards it. The chains parted suddenly for him in a loud noisy clank. He turned round fiercely and gazed into the darkness. There was nothing there. Taking all his courage to control himself he walked again towards the door. He brought the handle down and opened it with a loud metallic noise. Turning slowly he looked through the gap as if Moses had opened the way through the sea to hell. The light rested peacefully on the ground with the dripping water. He was afraid: afraid of the chains, and afraid of the thing that lurked in them.  
"There's something greatly evil here..." he whispered with a huge shiver, "Don't bother the living! Stay here! Stay here creature of darkness! Stay forgotten! This place is yours, but do not venture out..." Reptile's words cut short. He gulped unable to continue for his heart was racing. He looked once up at the light with wide eyes before slowly he shut the door and ran away down the corridor. 


End file.
